Senpai is an Otokonoko

 Senpai is an Otokonoko (先輩はおとこのこ) is a 12 episode slice of life romance based on the manga of the same name by Pom.  The series originally aired over the Summer of 2024.

    Aoi Saki has fallen for an upper classman, a beautiful girl named Hanaoka Makoto.  When she gathers up the courage to confess she learns that her senpai is actually a boy who dresses as a girl in school.  Saki falls even more in love with Makoto , entranced by the beautiful boy who looks even more beautiful as a girl.  Makoto's childhood friend, Taiga Ryuji, tries to protect him from the strange younger girl.  Ryuji fears that Saki is only trying to make fun of Makoto.  Saki recognizes that Ryuji harbors deeper feelings for his friend and starts to confront him about them.  Makoto is only able to live the way he wants to in secret from his mother.  He has always been attracted to feminine things but his mother has aggressively tried to force her son to be the way she wants him to be.  His father secretly supports Makoto to be the person he wants to be and helped him get to a school where the faculty at least was accepting of him presenting as a girl.

    Makoto tries and fight his desires when his mother begins to harass him again, only to have his passion restored through Saki's actions.  But she concedes that Makoto will not be able to love her and pushes Ryuji to be more honest with himself about his feelings.  Ryuji himself struggles with the feelings he has had for Makoto since they were young, uncertain if he is really gay or if it is just a deeper love for his best friend.  All three have internal struggles they are trying to fight alone; Makoto with his identity and the resistance from his mother and the world around him.  Ryuji and his conflicted feelings for Makoto.  Saki and her desire to have someone to love and to love her back given her father is absent from her life due to his work and her mother left them when she was little.  Will any of them be able to be honest and open with the other around them who care?

    This show was surprisingly way better than I would have expected.  Just based on the trailers and the first episode, it presented its self as a comedy series, with everything centering around Makoto being a cross dresser and the quirky girl trying to get him to love her.  In reality it is a deep and complex drama about the main characters and their realistic and relatable struggles.  Not just with normal adolescence, but with their very realistic problems with how the world views them and how they view themselves.  There is an amount of comedy which is scattered through out the series in tasteful ways.  All three characters are approachable, relatable and realistic in their portrayal.  Perhaps the most frustrating is Makoto's passive attitude.  Even though he continuously defies the expectations around him he is easily swayed by suggestion.  He does not stand up for himself, relying, if passively, on Ryuji to fight his battles for him.  Ryuji is the most conflicted of the characters, even if he's only open and honest to himself.  Saki's arc is perhaps the most interesting though.

    Saki's background and struggles were an unexpected depth to the story that didn't start to take shape until the second half of the series.  It pushed her from being a generic character who was only there to propel the focus of the story into a different and equally important thread in the tale.  Her arc was not tied to Makoto and Ryuji but their friendship with her tied them to it.  Ryuji himself is the control in this test.  He comes from a loving and supportive family and only struggles with his internal crisis'.  Makoto and Saki struggle with both internal and external issues that allow Ryuji to be a stabilizing force in their dynamics.  I can't speak enough about how lovely and well paced this story was.  The characterization was fantastic and real in a very appreciable way.  Whats better is the story will conclude with a movie set to release in February of 2025.

 

    The series was simulcast on Crunchyroll.

Tadaima, Okaeri

 Tadaima, Okaeri (ただいま、おかえり) is a 12 episode slice of life yaoi series based on the manga of the same name by Ichikawa Ichi.  The series originally aired during the Spring of 2024.

    Masaki and Hiromu are a same sex couple trying to raise their young son Hiraki in a world that hangs onto outdated prejudices.  Masaki is an omega, which means he is able to be impregnated regardless of their gender.  Hiromu is an alpha, meaning he is able to impregnate omega's and beta's alike, beta's being standard humans.  The young couple had to move to a different neighborhood to escape societal pressures placed on Masaki purely based on his status as an omega and marriage to an alpha.  Hiromu does what ever he can to protect and nurture his husband and shield him from as much hatred and discomfort as possible.  While the move has allowed them a fresh start in a more accepting environment, they have a harder time removing themselves from the layers of disgust from their extended family.

    Masaki had a difficult childhood due to his omega status, largely sheltered from the world by his parents and shunned by much of his extended family.  After the death of his parents he cut himself off from his relatives but struggles with how little he values himself, relying largely on the support of his husband.  Hiromu, characterized by his alpha status as respected, powerful and authoritative, plays the roll of doting bread earner who has turned his back on his own family due to their disapproval of his marriage to Masaki.  His only concern is the well being of his husband and their son Hiraki growing up in a loving and accepting environment.  It takes a while for them to settle into their new neighborhood but they soon gather a small group of friends who support them regardless of anyone's type.  The world may be becoming less critical of someones type but that doesn't mean reactions from others aren't painful, can the young couple, living in their own way, forge a life together in a way that will defeat the hatred through lover and understanding?

    This series was my first introduction to the literary world of the omegaverse.  In short, its a popular subgroup in net-based erotic fiction that leans heavily into the incorrectly stated concept of wolf pack hierarchical organization.  The stories primarily rely heavily if not exclusively on rigid dom vs sub archetypes.  The whole alpha male concept is pseudoscience at best and deliberately false at worse so I'm not exactly thrilled there is an entire sub genre of erotic fiction that uses this as its focus point.  Beyond the basis of the genre, the story is a benign day to day telling of the struggles the young couple go through living in a world that eyes their union with distrust.  Masaki's personality is that of a lost and bewildered lamb, he is constantly nervous about everything around him, always seeking the reassuring protection of his husband.  Hiromu strides through life with confidence and an easy smile on his face, unwilling to show any trepidation he has, confident everything will work out and all that truly matters if the health and safety of his family.

    The story in general was rather boring, the only thing that kept me watching is was to see how much of the world was going to be explained...which was very little in the end.  The plot lines were sleepy and meandering with very little in the way of an over all plot, beyond the status of the young couple with their respective families.  They gather around them a small group of male friends who are only minimally detailed.  The 11th episode was one of the more interesting episodes but it concluded in a manner that highlighted how damaging the concept the story centers around is.  It reminded me that many stories built in the omegaverse have characters that are closer to animal than human and it just feels like a sexualized power fantasy...something that never sits right with me.  I did not enjoy this series and am hoping a pending yaoi in the 2024 Summer season will wash away the bad taste this series left.  Unless you're a fan of the story style found in omegaverse titles, steer clear of this one.  Its boring at best and insidious at worse.  But the core concept alone doesn't make this an unpleasant viewing experience, the story was really pointlessly boring and meandered too much.

The anime was simulcast on Crunchyroll.

Cherry Magic! Thirty Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard?!

Cherry Magic! Thirty Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard?! (30歳まで童貞だと魔法使いになれるらしい) is a 12 episode slice of life yaoi romance based on the manga of the same name by Toyota Yuu.  The series aired over the Winter season of 2024.

     Adachi Kiyoshi is a gloomy office worker who has struggled to find love through out his life.  He suddenly gained the ability to hear peoples internal thoughts when he comes into physical contact with them.  His world changes when he learns the secret thoughts of a coworker, Kurosawa Yuichi, a handsome well respected sales rep.  Adachi struggles with the idea that a man can fall in love with him, let alone the most desired bachelor at his company.  He also struggles with uncertainty around being able to reciprocate his coworkers feelings and desires.  Using his supernatural abilities he cheats to understand Kurosawa's motives and desires.  As the two men spend more time together and Adachi comes into closer contact with Kurosawa's heart he begins to accept the feelings welling up inside of him but has to figure out a way to express them, unsure of his own worth.

   Kurosawa struggles to maintain his polished veneer, always battles against his desires and urges.  As he spends more time with Adachi he begins to push him to find out if there is a chance of him getting his wishes.  Unknown to him, the object of his affection can hear everything he's thinking when they are in physical contact.  Even without that, Kurosawa does what he can to express his feelings for him without risking too much if rejected.  As time goes on he finds it harder and harder to hold back and when he confesses and isn't rejected an unbalanced relationship begins to unfold.  Adachi, inexperienced in love, begins to lean into his strange powers to help him be a better partner for Kurosawa, but how long can he keep a secret like that from someone who loves him so openly?

    This was a cute and slow burning romance that played into some standard yaoi tropes with out coming off as trashy of voyeuristic.  Kurosawa's seme qualities were blunted by his literal school girl giddiness and barely controlled perversion.  Adachi was a typical self hating gloom boy uke.  What drove the story to be interesting is how Adachi navigated around his ability to read peoples thoughts, or more accurately, their hearts.  Even with this massive cheat code enabled he struggled with how to respond to the other persons affection.  Some of this hesitation and uncertainty stems from his own lack of confidence.  He struggled to understand why a guy who could catch anyone he desired would be interested in an introverted loner like himself and hesitated to express his feelings clearly even after they had begun to date.

    There was a parallel side story dealing with a college friend of Adachi's who also ends up gaining the mind reading via prolonged virginity ability and an infatuation with a younger delivery boy.  I'm not sure what literary purpose this plot line provided other than checking off a shota trope but some aspects of it felt a little creepy and forced.  The object of Adachi's friends affection happened to be a college friend of one of Adachi and Kurosawa's younger coworkers.  Honestly though it was fine, just seemed to distract too many times from the core story around the main characters.  On a final note the art work seemed to suffer near the end of the series with consistency.  The artwork wasn't the highest of caliber to begin with, the character designs being pure shojo and not highly detailed.  But in the end the story was cute and lovely and it might be fun to see a one shot of the couples later in life.

    The series was simulcast on Crunchyroll and is currently only available in sub format.